Theological Outlook in Marilyn Manson song?

[JNathanK]

"The Reflecting of God:

your world is an ashtray
we burn and coil like cigarettes
the more you cry your ashes turn to mud
it's the nature of the leeches, the virgin's
feeling cheated
you've only spent a second of your life
my world is unaffected, there is an exit here
I say it is and then it's true,
there is a dream inside a dream,
I'm wide awake the more I sleep
you'll understand when I'm dead
I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me
saw heaven and hell were lies
when I'm god everyone dies
scar/can you feel my power?
shoot here and the world gets smaller
scar/scar/can you feel my power?
one shot and the world gets smaller
let's jump upon the sharp swords
and cut away our smiles
without the threat of death
there's no reason to live at all
my world is unaffected, there is an exit here
I say it is and then it's true,
there is a dream inside a dream,
I'm wide awake the more I sleep
you'll understand when I'm dead

shoot shoot shoot...
...each thing i show you is a piece of my death
no salvation, no forgiveness
this is beyond your experience
forgiveness..."

It sounds suicidal and nihilistic, and I'm not exactly sure what its trying to get across about salvation and forgiveness. I'm trying to pin down the deeper theological concepts in the song though. The message is that killing yourself would re-merge you with the godhead or something I'm guessing. It has a Gnostic undertone.

He also has an album cover depicting himself as a rotting and crucified Christ, along with a cover of Depeche Mode's song, Personal Jesus. I have a problem with the idea of Jesus as being something within "you". I think it should be known that Christ is external to your own ego, which you have to receive into your heart, not unlike how a radio has to receive a signal, external to it, by tuning into the proper frequency.


Its not a solipsistic message, because in the live performance, he replaces "I went to god just to see, and I was looking at me" with "...and I was looking at you" while pointing to the audience. I guess the point of the song is that we're all distorted reflections of God. I suppose there may be some validity to this, since were created in God's image. However, I don't like the suicidal message of the song.

I don't really get why nihilism, the idea that there's no intrinsic meaning or purpose to life, is such a popular theme in music and media targeted at youth culture. Its probably what separates baby boomers from generation X. Say what you will about rock music from the 60's, but, imo, it was less depressing than the bulk of rock music from the 90's.

 

[MarbleShooter]

From what I understand about Manson is that he is against organized religion because in his position, its a mindset where all the answers are given to you, and you (not aimed at you personally, its a disembodied you) don't have to nesesarily have to think to deeply about what is taught. This song reads, to me, that Manson looked at this world and has a negative outlook on humanity and our futile struggle with our mortality. Points out that he seeked The Christian God and had the revelation that he was basically looking at himself and with that figured out that Heaven and Hell where not real in his opinion because if God was just an extension of him, then these places don't actually exist. With that, his comment about when he is God everyone is dead, I think means that now that he came to epiphany that God was just a mirror of him, then that means that there really is no salvation and that we are all doomed to die. Manson dose dwell on a lot of Nihilism, but its not that music has a huge stake in it. The beginning of the 90's saw a war in the Middle east and a recession. Bands like Korn, Manson, Ministry, and Alice in Chains found their niche because they were echoing the thoughts of the young folk of that generation. Every thing seemed pointless and we came off of huge high from the End of the 80s where it was full of excess and now the next generation came in and the excess was gone and what took its place was the scale coming back pointing out that not everything is awesome. Now we went through an excess period again with the Millennium, but we have returned to a lull period. Music tends to reflect the problems and excesses of society at the time. I like talking about music, so if you are interested hit me up.